Another Quick Post

Hi everyone! Sorry, today's post will contain limited commentary again. I hate it when pesky tests must take priority over the fun stuff. Boo! Anyway, here are the weekend's eats:

Friday
I tried a cool new treat on Friday night: Erin's Bakery Mini Breakfast Cookies. These were the peanut butter flavor. They're small but oh-so-peanut-buttery. Truth be told, I went back for another one:)
Saturday
Quick breakfast of strawberry-soymilk smoothie and some Whole Foods brand Organic Flax Waffles with a drizzle of pure maple syrup.
Lunch didn't happen until 3PM, so I was a starvin' Marvin. I made a hearty sandwich out of a Rudi's Flax English Muffin, mashed avocado, Soy Boy 5-grain tempeh, and Annie's BBQ sauce. I am totally in love Annie's products! Oh, and the salad has sliced button mushrooms, Romaine, and Craisins.
Dinner was completely random but so tasty. I grilled up the rest of my eggplant on my good friend Mr. Foreman. I drizzled tahini on top--SO GOOD. TRY THIS. I also had a hearty portion of corn/black bean salad and some plain soy yogurt with fresh blueberries.
I got around to trying my Kashi Vive sample. It was good, but a little too sweet, and that's saying a lot coming from a girl with a healthy sweet tooth. Maybe it would be better mixed with some bran flakes or something equally bland.
The shake of the evening was good in theory but not in taste. I combined a So Delicious Cinnamon Bun soy yogurt with a Chai Latte flavor Spirutein packet and some ice. Really sweet, but the cinnamon flavor didn't sufficiently shine through. What a waste of a good cinnamon bun yogurt.
Sunday
My breakfast was supremely boring so let's skip to lunch. It included a grilled tofu/hummus sandwich for which I used--you guessed it--Mr. Foreman. I also had a salad with salted cashews and balsamic vinegar and some random frozen fruit remnants (peaches, mango chunks).
For dinner, I tried another new product: Amy's cheeseless roasted vegetable pizza. Two thumbs up! I was surprised to discover that there was no tomato sauce on it though. I remember VeggieGirl's review of this product on Iateapie a while back in which she suggested adding additional veggies--I think that's a good recommendation. My family enjoyed it too--after I took my portion my dad and brother-in-law Major finished off the remaining 3/4. Go figure. I also had a salad with chickpeas, plus a bowl of strawberries and a glass of chocolate soymilk. I make the soy milk by whizzing plain soymilk in the MB with special dark cocoa and stevia; this is my current obsession.

Smoothie time featured another attempt at using soy yogurt: strawberry banana soy yogurt, "Nutty Berry Burst" Spirutein, peanut butter, and ice. It was mediocre at best. I am in dire need of a tasty shake--I've had quite enough of these sub-par creations.
Monday
Excellent breakfast this morning: oat bran (cooked on the stovetop) with whipped banana and a healthy dose of almond butter. It's not difficult to figure out why this is a classic:)
For the midday meal, I had tempeh dipped in a rather thick peanut sauce, along with a perfect (Chilton County!) peach, spinach salad, and a few rice cakes. I was hoping for some rice crackers, but the cakes'll do, I suppose. This kept me really full--no growling tummy in class today!
Now I am off to eat dinner! Ciao/chow!

My Little Rewards

With my torturous lab test completed, I have been rewarding myself for the past 24 hours. I settled in last night to read a back issue of Clean Eating Magazine, and today my mom treated me to a few items on our shopping trip; I came home with two pairs of shorts, a dress, two summery shirts, and some underthings from Aerie. Plus, when I got home, there was a free sample of Kashi Vive in the mailbox. Cute underpants and free food in the same day?! A rewarding day, without a doubt.


Despite my little celebration today, I have some studying to do this weekend--two tests next week. Ugh. At least one of them is in my nutrition class, so studying won't be too painful:) Yes, I know I am a dork.

Well, I have lots to discuss today since my last post was earlier in the day, meaning Wednesday's lunch and dinner have yet to be divulged.

Wednesday
Talk about a random (and lazy) lunch. I dumped some things that had been lingering in the fridge onto my plate: leftover turnip greens, tofu cutlet (Helen's Kitchen brand), spinach with sliced almonds and balsamic vinegar, and Ezekiel pita and a bowl of sliced peaches.
My mom made chili for dinner, so I decided to follow suit--especially since I had some leftover canned tomatoes and pinto beans in the fridge. I added a few spices (cayenne, chili powder, lots of cumin) and topped it off with mashed avocado. A vegan cheddar muffin and salad finished it off right.
My snack was something out of the ordinary: not a shake, not snack mix but...dessert oatmeal! I've always wanted to try a chocolate-oatmeal combo, but I figured it would be too sweet for morning. For my evening oats, I prepared them with a cup of soymilk, topped them with dark chocolate chunks, and mixed in a mini Clif bar (chocolate brownie flavor). Let's just say that I burned my tongue several times with this one...I couldn't wait to shovel that melty goodness in my mouth!
Thursday
Quick breakfast again: Kashi GoLean with soymilk and strawberries with walnuts. Good stuff.
I packed my lunch to eat on campus again. This time my feast included a hummus and spinach sandwich, juicy grapes, raw veggies, and a few raw almonds. I think this tasted OK, but I was far too busy cramming in last minute study time.

I just needed a quick dinner, so I turned to Dreena's sandwich section in Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan. Tamari chickpea spread was the lucky winner...I dipped an Ezekiel pita into the mixture. Snap peas and a side salad added some more nutrients. Afterward I had a small frozen cherry-soymilk smoothie.
After 5-days of shake-free living, I returned to my addiction last night. The impetus was a packet of S'mores flavor Spirutein that arrived in the mail yesterday. (It had been on back order when I purchased my last round of packets from Lucky Vitamin). I mixed it with chocolate peanut butter So Delicious and almond milk. I dipped a few Whole Foods brand graham crackers in it for authenticity:)
Friday

Whenever I have some spare time in the mornings, I inevitably cook up some scrambled tofu. The combination today consisted of tofu, vegan cheddar, and caramelized onion, along with the usual spices. I attempted to eat it as a burrito but ultimately used a knife and fork. A not so tasty kiwi added some balance to this protein-heavy meal.

I was in no mood to cook lunch today (weird, I know). I just topped some Ak Maks with almond butter and a few dried cranberries. A salad and an apple added some fiber.
I was so psyched for my snack today because I finally bought some Annie's Goddess Dressing. As a recent convert to the wonder of tahini, I am quite enamored of this tasty goop. Aside from the veggies and dip, I also had some blueberry soy yogurt.

Dinner was rather free-style again: I threw some leftover chickpeas, jarred pasta sauce, and fresh eggplant into a pan; cook up those broken pieces of pasta at the bottom of the package, add a salad with jarred olives, and you've got a tasty meal!

Enjoy your weekend!

Merry Half Christmas!

Yep, we're exactly 6 months away from my absolute favorite holiday of the year. Aside from my yuletide obsession, my birthday also happens to be December 24, so I am officially 20.5 years old. Eeek! FYI, my annual Christmas/birthday countdown doesn't start until September.

I am posting earlier in the day today due to that persistent nuisance otherwise known as anatomy class. I have a 160-question midterm tomorrow at 1:00, so I will be spending much of my evening after class studying rather than blogging. Trust me, I'd rather be blogging. Anyway, here are a few pics of my eats over the past few days.

Monday
For my evening snack, I opted for a big bowl of organic popcorn with a few dark chocolate chunks thrown in. For those of you who don't know I am taking a temporary hiatus from my nighttime smoothies and shakes. I'm just trying to switch things up a little. By the way, I love this popcorn! The only ingredients on the label were organic popcorn, organic vegetable oil, and salt. Short and and sweet, er, salty.
Tuesday
Squeezing in a run before a 10 AM class necessitate speedy breakfasts on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was feeling tropical yesterday-- I threw some oats in a bowl with pinenapple chunks and cashews.
Lunch consisted of a Tofurky-avocado-spinach wrap in a whole wheat tortilla. I used salsa as a dressing on that spinach salad, and I balanced it all out with an apple. No shortage of fiber in this lunch!
Snacktime! This is another typical snack for me: lemon soy yogurt and red bell pepper strips with hummus. It really bugs me how some soy yogurts aren't fortified with vitamin B12...So Delicious is the only company I've encountered who does this service for vegans/vegetarians. Oh, and let me know if you'd rather I not post snacks. I'm looking for some feedback because I know they're a tad boring.
Red beans and rice for dinner last night. Well sort of. I stole some brown rice from my parents' dinner and mixed it with no salt added canned tomatoes, garlic, cumin, chili powder, and leftover pinto beans. Not traditional by any means, but it was tasty nonetheless. I was still a little hungry afterward, so I whizzed some almond milk with cocoa powder and enjoyed it with some fresh blueberries. Amazing.
Owing to the surplus of bananas around here, I made some vegan banana pudding last night. I got the recipe from VegWeb. Can't wait to try it:)
For snack last night I ended up making another bowl of hot cereal. This time I used that Quaker multigrain cereal I've been enjoying so much lately. I mixed in some pumpkin flax granola and topped it off with a Medjool date.
Wednesday
This morning I tried a few new products. I made a smoothie using Fruitein this morning (as opposed to Spirutein). One of these packets provides 600 mg calcium; I think these are vegan, if you're interested. I blended it with frozen blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries and slurped it out of my nifty new smoothie receptacle (for lack of a better word). Along with it, I tried a new Kashi cereal, Honey Sunshine. This was pretty good, but I think I like Puffins and Corn Bran better, mostly because the "pillows" of those cereals are much bigger. The squares in these were about the size of corn kernels. Now I'm off to review muscles + bones for the thousandth time. Soon I'll be dreaming (or having nightmares) about condyles, processes, and the rectus femoris. Ugh.